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| TOYING WITH CORRUPTION IN AFRICA::::::::::: |
11/21/2009 |
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Corruption in Africa ranges from high-level political graft on the scale of millions of dollars to middle-level bribes to officers or officials in the police and customs to the low-level to clerks and voters, etc. While political graft imposes the largest direct financial cost on a country, petty bribes have a corrosive effect on basic institutions and undermine public trust in the government. James L. Buckley noted that the kind of corruption the media talk about, the kind the Supreme Court is concerned about, involves the putative sale of votes in exchange for campaign contributions.
However, corruption has permeated all facets of the society. A common definition of public corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain. Corruption defined this way would capture, for example, the sale of government property by government officials, kickbacks in public procurement, bribery and embezzlement of government funds. Corruption indeed is an outcome-a reflection of a country’s legal, economic, cultural and political institutions. Measuring corruption across countries is a difficult task, both due to the secretive nature of corruption and the variety of forms it takes. However, it was one of the indices used by transparency International to characterize fragility that included many African countries.
Corruption indicator captures the likelihood that high government officials will demand special payments and the extent to which illegal payments are expected throughout government tiers. Corruption is one of the most formidable challenges to good governance, development and poverty reduction. Corruption in Africa is like an advanced cancer or tumour that cannot be treated. It has tragically devastated African societies and made millions of people destitute. From Algeria to Zimbabwe the tentacles of corruption has encircled the continent. From the offices of presidents and prime ministers to the smallest administration unit of government corruption is everywhere.
Africa is widely considered among the world’s most corrupt places, a factor seen as contributing to the stunted development and impoverishment of many nations. Of the ten countries considered most corrupt in the world, six are in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Transparency International, a leading global watchdog on corruption. All Africans must weep for the liberty of our countries when we see at this morning of its experiment with democracy that corruption has been imputed into many of our politicians, institutions and the rights of the people have been
traded for promises of office.
The French philosopher, Denis Diderot wrote; in any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Those living in the country will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth is elevated to the highest virtue, and poverty made the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. Is the above prevalent in our society? But anti-corruption efforts on the continent have shown mixed results in recent years. In some the campaigners have been forced under pressure to compromise with the powers that be. Africans and their leaders should not regard the recent American leaders- President and Secretary of state’s injunctions that corruption was eroding the governments’ legitimacy and global aspirations in the continent as hypocritical.
Some even responded with- “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” The Americans have always conducted elections that are transparent. They run an accountable and transparent democracy making meritocracy the canon of political appointments. They have prosecuted the financial fraudster-Madoff and slammed him with jail term. His counterpart in Africa (the big man) would have used part of the loot to buy his way out of prosecution, not to talk of gaol. USA have prosecuted the Microsoft
giant whenever it had run foul of the rules of competition and fought tobacco companies on advertisements instead of compromise.
They have demystified the Swiss safe- heaven for doubtful deposits, etc. All these and more have given them the moral rectitude, impeccability, audacity and authority to admonish evil and injustice wherever and whenever they see them rearing their ugly heads. Truth is always bitter and it takes too much lies to cover the truth. Craftiness, wise men say must have clothes, but truth loves to go naked. That naked truth these Americans have told Africans and should not be crucified for it. Let us save the energy we are using in castigating them to proffer solutions to the cancerous corruption ravaging the entire continent. It was Karl Kraus who said that corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.
Our leaders should put machinery in motion to sensitize the populace on the dangers of corruption so as to sanitize and salvage the nation’s moral fabrics.
The prevailing policy of being soft on the issue of anti-corruption crusading
is tantamount to dispensing analgesia for cancerous ailment. Corruption should be seen as a cancer that it is, and attacked through chemotherapy. The more we toy with it, the more it engulfs all the societal institutions and the outcome
is obvious.
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